Island Life: or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras, Including a Revision and Attempted Solution of the Problem of Geological Climates

$800 · Offered by Book Collector Inc

Author: Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) Year: 1880 Publisher: MacMillan and Company Place: London Description: xvii[3]+526+[2 ad] pages with hand-colored frontispiece, 3 color lithographed map plates, numerous maps and diagrams in the text, tables and index. Octavo (9x6") bound in original publisher's green pebble cloth stamped in gilt. First edition. Island Life: or, The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras is a seminal scientific book written by the legendary British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and first published in 1880. Serving as a key foundational text for the field of biogeography, the book explores how isolation, geological transformations, and climate shifts dictate the distribution and evolution of plants and animals on islands. Wallace divided islands into continental (once connected to landmasses, like Great Britain) and oceanic (volcanic or coral formations that rose from the deep sea, like the Galapagos), predicting how their origins dictate their specific biological diversity. : The text analyzes how species migrate across vast water barriers via wind, ocean currents, or flight, challenging prevailing myths of "special creation" or lost sunken continents. Wallace proposed early theories connecting astronomical shifts and geographic setups to explain continental glaciation and the massive impact of ancient ice ages on species survival. He used the stark ecological differences between neighboring islands to demonstrate that geographic barrier

• Binding: Hardcover

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